About 100 pupils at a prestigious private school in Wan Chai may have no place to attend classes next year if it cannot secure a temporary location while the current campus is redeveloped, its sponsoring body says.

The primary section of Lingnan Primary School and Kindergarten on Stubbs Road would be shut down for the redevelopment work, the sponsoring body, Lingnan Education Organisation, said last night.

If it could not find suitable alternative premises by July next year, the section would shut down, it said.

'Because of an Education Bureau requirement that a suspension notice must be issued one year ahead, the school sent a notice to parents last week notifying them the school would be suspended from July, 2013,' it said.

The relocation issue came up in June last year when the school said the Wan Chai campus had structural problems and must be closed for repairs. Buildings Department officials later said the campus was safe, but the school management insisted it had to move, angering parents.

It said pupils could move back to Wan Chai after the redevelopment ended in 2017. Last year the Lingnan Education Organisation said it was shifting the kindergarten to a temporary site in Siu Sai Wan while looking for a primary-school location.

However, it had been unable to find an appropriate campus, it said last night. Parents who chose to let their children stay on must bear the risk of losing a school place if no site could be found by next July.

In a meeting with 60 parents last night, the school said it was still trying its best to find a site.

Oonah Buist, a parent with two sons in Primary One, quoted the school as saying it could not take a site offered by the bureau, as the school could not meet its conditions. 'They are not willing to share with us what their actual plans are. They are 100 per cent non-transparent.'